DECtape
E805861
DECtape was a durable, random-access magnetic tape storage medium widely used on early Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputers for both data and program storage.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| DECtape canonical | 4 |
| DEC tape | 1 |
| DECtape II | 1 |
| Digital Equipment Corporation tape | 1 |
| TU55 DECtape drive | 1 |
| TU56 DECtape drive | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9532467 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: DECtape Context triple: [PDP-1, storageDevice, DECtape]
-
A.
IBM 3420 magnetic tape drives
IBM 3420 magnetic tape drives are a family of high-performance, reel-to-reel tape storage devices introduced by IBM in the early 1970s for mainframe data backup and archival.
-
B.
Betamax
Betamax is an analog videocassette tape format introduced by Sony in the 1970s that became known for its high-quality recording and its famous format war with VHS.
-
C.
Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive
The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive is a 5.25-inch disk storage device with its own built-in processor, widely used with the Commodore 64 home computer for loading, saving, and managing software and data.
-
D.
LaserDisc
LaserDisc is an early optical disc video format that provided higher-quality analog video and audio than VHS tapes and was popular among home theater enthusiasts before the rise of DVD.
-
E.
Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive
The Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive is a compact, durable floppy disk format that became the industry standard for personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: DECtape Target entity description: DECtape was a durable, random-access magnetic tape storage medium widely used on early Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputers for both data and program storage.
-
A.
IBM 3420 magnetic tape drives
IBM 3420 magnetic tape drives are a family of high-performance, reel-to-reel tape storage devices introduced by IBM in the early 1970s for mainframe data backup and archival.
-
B.
Betamax
Betamax is an analog videocassette tape format introduced by Sony in the 1970s that became known for its high-quality recording and its famous format war with VHS.
-
C.
Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive
The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive is a 5.25-inch disk storage device with its own built-in processor, widely used with the Commodore 64 home computer for loading, saving, and managing software and data.
-
D.
LaserDisc
LaserDisc is an early optical disc video format that provided higher-quality analog video and audio than VHS tapes and was popular among home theater enthusiasts before the rise of DVD.
-
E.
Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive
The Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive is a compact, durable floppy disk format that became the industry standard for personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computer storage device
ⓘ
magnetic tape data storage medium ⓘ |
| accessMode |
bidirectional
ⓘ
read ⓘ write ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
DEC tape
ⓘ
linked to:
DECtape
Digital Equipment Corporation tape ⓘ
linked to:
DECtape
TU55 ⓘ TU56 ⓘ |
| basedOn | LINCtape design ⓘ |
| blockSize | 128-word blocks on many systems ⓘ |
| characteristic |
could be used as system disk substitute
ⓘ
high durability ⓘ random block access similar to disk ⓘ |
| dataEncoding | block-structured ⓘ |
| designedFor | minicomputer ⓘ |
| era |
1960s
ⓘ
1970s ⓘ |
| interfaceDevice |
TU55 DECtape drive
ⓘ
linked to:
DECtape
TU56 DECtape drive ⓘ
linked to:
DECtape
|
| manufacturer | Digital Equipment Corporation ⓘ |
| medium | oxide-coated Mylar tape ⓘ |
| notableProperty |
addressable by block number
ⓘ
could withstand repeated rewrites without failure ⓘ |
| predecessor | LINCtape ⓘ |
| primaryUse |
data storage
ⓘ
operating system storage ⓘ program storage ⓘ |
| storageType |
magnetic tape
ⓘ
random-access ⓘ |
| successor |
DECtape II
ⓘ
linked to:
DECtape
disk drives on later DEC systems ⓘ |
| trackCount | 10-track tape ⓘ |
| typicalCapacity | approximately 184 kilobytes per tape ⓘ |
| usedFor |
software development on DEC minicomputers
ⓘ
system backup on early DEC systems ⓘ |
| usedOn |
PDP-10
ⓘ
PDP-11 ⓘ PDP-12 ⓘ PDP-15 ⓘ PDP-4 ⓘ PDP-5 ⓘ PDP-6 ⓘ PDP-7 ⓘ PDP-8 ⓘ PDP-9 ⓘ |
| wordSizeSupport |
12-bit systems
ⓘ
18-bit systems ⓘ 36-bit systems ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: DECtape Description of subject: DECtape was a durable, random-access magnetic tape storage medium widely used on early Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputers for both data and program storage.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: DECtape
linked to: DECtape
linked to: DECtape
linked to: DECtape